Managing Your School Forest

Transcription

1 ED 5630 Forest Resources and Environmental Science by Jen Toivonen Target Grade: Managing Your School Forest Unit Overview: Students will work in the school forest to create a forest management plan. Students will decide before they visit the school forest what their goal of forest management will be for example, recreation, hunting, non game wildlife, or timber production. Students will work in groups according to the management goal. At the school forest, the groups will take measurements and collect data at three stands, a managed Northern Hardwood stand, an old-growth Northern Hardwood stand and an Aspen regeneration stand. Students will collect data on 1/10 acre plots and extrapolate out to the stand as a whole. Based on the data collected, information from county soils books, information from habitat type books and information from Habitat Suitability indices, students will write one overall forest management plan with specific prescriptions for each stand to attain their management goal. This unit will be the culminating activity to the class forestry unit. Students will have previously studied plant and tree identification, studied basic forest terminology, learned to use scribner sticks, pi tapes, calculated board feet and cords per acre. This unit will go beyond basic forestry knowledge by putting students in the role of a forester. The Forest Park school forester will guide students through the data collection on site. This unit is much like the Forestry Institute but scaled down to the High School level. Students will do the same activities Andy Burton and Keren Tischler assigned in the field. The class will work through each step of the data analysis in class until the final management plan is written, which students will write individually as a take home test. Activities: Activity One: The class will run through a practice data collection at a stand in the school s backyard. Activity Two: Field trip to the School Forest. Groups will be assigned a latitude and longitude within each stand. Groups will navigate to their assigned location and setup a 1/10 acre plot to collect data in. All groups will finish work within a stand before the class moves the next stand. See Handouts One and Two. Activity Three: Students make Excel table of collected tree data and calculate basal area/tree, board feet/tree, trees/acre, basal area/acre and board feet/acre. Students use the tables provided to obtain board feet per tree in the Northern Hardwoods stands and cords/acre for the Aspen regeneration stand. Students will also create a table to summarize the tree data and a table of the ground flora percents. See Handout Three. Activity Five: Students calculate Habitat Suitability indices for selected animals, using Excel. See Handout Four. Activity Six: Students use the Iron County soils book to attain information on the soils in their plot. See Handout Five. Activity Seven: Student use the Guide to Habitat Types to attain information on the habitat type of their plot. See Handout Six. Activity Eight: Students write Forest Management plans using the template provided. See Handout Seven. Assessment: Although no typical tests or quizzes will be given during this unit, assessment is embedded throughout. The following is a list of assessments: Field trip participation: 50 points, homework grade Tree Data spreadsheet 20 points, homework grade Habitat Suitability Index spreadsheet 20 points, homework grade Habitat Type worksheet 10 points, homework grade Soils book worksheet 20 points, homework grade Forest Management plan 100 points, Test grade Total 230 points

2 References 1. A Guide to Forest Communities and Habitat Types of Central and Southern Michigan John Kotar and Timothy Burger, the Department of Forestry, University of Wisconsin- Madison. 2. Soil Survey of Iron County, Michigan United States Department of Agriculture. 3. Michigan Trees (revised and updated) A Guide to the Trees of the Great Lakes Region Burton V. Barnes and Warren H. Wagner, Jr. University of Michigan Press. 4. Woodland Stewardship A Practical Guide for Midwestern Landowners Baugham et al. University of Minnesota. Michigan Content Standards Addressed Science 1. Describe common ecological relationships between and among species and their environments (SCI.III.5.HS.1). 2. Describe responses of an ecosystem to events that cause it to change (SCI.III.5.HS.4). 3. Describe general factors regulating population size in ecosystems (SCI.III.5.HS.3) Math Standard 1: Students collect and explore data, organize data into a useful form, and develop skill in representing and reading data displayed in different formats. (Collection, Organization and Presentation of Data). Learning Objectives At the end of this unit students will be able to: 1. Collect data and calculate the timber volume of a stand. 2. Obtain information from a county soil survey book to determine which tree species to plant in an area. 3. Predict herbaceous species in an area according to the soil. 4. Predict the suitability of a stand to certain species of animals. 5. Write a comprehensive forest management plan.

3 Activity 1: Andy Burton s Field Exercise Field Inventory & Tree Measurements Each group will measure the overstory, sapling layer, seedling layer and ground flora in a northern hardwood ecosystem. Plot Layout. Each group will make their measurements on a circular 1/10 acre plot (37.2 ft radius). Mark the center of the plot with a blue flag. Place four red pin flags due N, S, E and W, 37.2 from plot center. These will be used as general guides to help you tell which trees are located inside your plot. For trees that you feel are near the edge, use your long measuring tape to determine if the trees are in or out. Seedlings will be counted on a circular subplot in the middle of your plot. Tree Measurements: 1. Overstory trees: Record dbh and species for all trees greater than or equal to 4 in diameter that are located within the 37.2 ft radius circle Measure the merchantable height, in logs, of all trees greater than 12 inches in diameter to a 10 inch upper stem diameter (you need to visually estimate where the 10 inch upper stem diameter occurs). 2. Saplings: record the diameter and species of each tree on the plot with a dbh between 0.5 and 3.9 inches. 3. Seedlings: record the number of seedlings (dbh <.5 inches) by species for your subplot. Your subplot will measure 2.63 ft in radius, 1/2000 acre. Center your subplot within your larger plot. 4. Ground flora: Walk around your plot area and record the names of the ground flora species you see (herbaceous and shrubs, not seedlings). When you are done recording, walk around your plot area and estimate % ground cover for each.

4 Date Crew Names Overstory and Sapling Data. Dbh measured for all trees with a dbh greater than or equal to 0.5 inches. Merchantable height to a 10 inch upper stem diameter determined for trees with dbh > 12 inches. Tree Species Dbh (inches) Merchantable Height (for logs and half logs, round to nearest half log) Seedlings: Record the number of tree seedlings (not shrubs) by species in your subplot. Identify the seedling species and count the number of that species. Species Number of Seedlings Ground flora: Walk around your entire plot and record names and % ground cover for each ground flora species you see. Use the attached visual aid as a guide. Species % Cover

5 Activity Two: Keren Tischler s Field Exercise on Habitat Suitability Index Models Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) models have been developed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to provide quantitative assessments of habitat for specific animal species. It is a useful tool for impact assessment and habitat management. An HSI model uses habitat information (habitat variables) to produce an index value between 0.0 (unsuitable habitat) and 1.0 (optimum habitat). HSI models are not statements of proven cause and effect relationships between habitat and animal abundance. Rather, they represent an expert opinion, or hypothesis, regarding a species-habitat relationship. Most HSI models have not been tested for validity. Keep in mind that there are other approaches to modeling wildlife habitat relationships. In this exercise, each group will measure the habitat variables necessary to generate habitat suitability hypotheses for several wildlife species in a northern hardwood ecosystem. The objective of this exercise is to gain an understanding of the interrelationships between habitat type and wildlife species occupancy. You will also learn how basic forest measurements can be used in ecological applications, and gain an appreciation for the benefits and limitations of using HSI models in forest management. Field Measurements You will be provided with a packet containing life history information, habitat variables, and an HSI model equation, for each of the following species: fisher, barred owl, pine warbler, downy woodpecker and blackcapped chickadee. Follow the instructions in each packet to measure each habitat variable in your 1/10 acre circular plot and record data on the attached datasheet. You will be able to apply some of the measurements you ve already made (e.g., basal area, overstory dbh, successional stage) to this exercise. Over for Data Sheet

6 Habitat Suitability by Species Data Form Fisher habitat variables Mean % canopy cover N S E W C % overstory deciduous N S E W C overstory dbh canopy diversity Barred owl habitat variables # trees 51cm dbh per 1.0 acre area Mean overstory dbh % canopy cover N S E W C Pine warbler habitat variables % canopy cover as pine (excluding white pine) successional stage % canopy pines with deciduous understory in upper 1/3 layer Downy woodpecker habitat variables N S E W C Mean Mean basal area # snags >15cm dbh per 1.0 acre area Black-capped chickadee habitat variables Mean % canopy cover N S E W C overstory height # snags 10-25cm dbh per 1.0 acre area

7 Handout 3: Andy Burton s Excel Table Example Data Summarization To summarize the data you will create the following three tables, examples are given on the back of this sheet. Table 1. Individual tree data for a 1/10 acre northern hardwood plot. Species dbh height basal area/tree bd ft/tree trees/ac basal area/ac bd ft/ac (in) (logs) (ft 2 ) (ft 2 /ac) basswood sugar maple sugar maple sugar maple sugar maple sugar maple sugar maple sugar maple sugar maple yellow birch Total Data collected in field = x dbh 2 from volume table provided You will have more trees 1. A table of all overstory trees and sapling trees, with columns for: species, dbh, merchantable height, basal area (calculated), and volume (determined from the volume tables provided). - Calculate basal area with the equation: Basal Area = dbh 2 2. A summary table that has density (number of stems per acre), basal area per acre, and volume per acre (board feet/acre) by species for the overstory species present, and density by species for the saplings and seedlings. You will have to convert your plot level data to a per acre basis. Your overstory and sapling plot was 0.10 acre, so you will have to multiply your plot totals by 10 to convert your data to a per acre basis. Your seedling plot size was acre so you will need to multiply your data by A table listing the ground flora species present and % cover for each. Over for table examples 10 for every tree on a 1/10 acre plot per tree expanded to a per acre basis (x 10 for a 1/10 acre plot)

8 Table 2. Summary overstory, sapling and seedling data for a northern hardwood forest. Strata Species Stems/ac Basal area (ft 2 /ac) Volume (bd ft/ac) Overstory trees basswood (>4 in dbh) sugar maple yellow birch total Saplings sugar maple ( in dbh) total Seedlings sugar maple 440,000 (< 0.5 in dbh) red maple 20,000 yellow birch 6,000 total 466,000 Table 3. Ground flora percent cover by species Species Cover (%) Spinulose shield fern 8 American fly honeysuckle 2 Oak fern 2 Wild sarsparilla 2 Grass 1 Wild lily of the valley 1 False Solomon s seal <1 Lady fern <1 Violet <1 Starflower <1

9 Table. Composite table: gross volume 1 in board-feet (International ¼-inch rule) by number of 16-foot logs. Diameter breast high Volume when number of 16-foot logs is (inches) ½ 1 1 ½ 2 2 ½ 3 3 ½ 4 5 Board-feet Boardfeet Boardfeet Boardfeet Boardfeet Boardfeet Boardfeet Board-feet Board-feet , , ,020 1, ,100 1, ,060 1,180 1, ,000 1,140 1,260 1, ,070 1,210 1,350 1, ,140 1,290 1,440 1, ,060 1,210 1,380 1,530 1, ,120 1,290 1,460 1,630 1, ,010 1,190 1,370 1,550 1,725 2, ,070 1,260 1,450 1,640 1,830 2, ,120 1,330 1,530 1,730 1,930 2, ,180 1,400 1,620 1,830 2,040 2, ,010 1,250 1,480 1,700 1,930 2,160 2,480 1 The bold figures in the upper portion of the table show volume to a top diameter of 6.0 or more, but less than 8.0 inches and hence are applicable only to softwoods.

10 Table. Composite table: gross peeled volume in rough cords to a variable top diameter inside bark, by number of bolts 1. Diameter breast high Volume when number of bolts is (inches) Cords Cords Cords Cords Cords Cords Cords Cords The bold figures in the upper portion of the table are to a minimum top diameter (inside bark) of 3.0 or more, but less than 4.0 inches. Other top diameters are variable but not less than 4.0 inches. 1

11 Handout 4: Keren Tischler s Directions for Excel table and Habitat Suitability Index Models Model Calculations In Excel, create a table with the following six column headings: Species, V1, V2, V3, V4 and HSI (see the example table). Use the Suitability Index graphs provided in the species packets to convert each of your habitat variable measurements into a Suitability Index Variable (a value from O.0 to 1.0) and enter into the spreadsheet. Then enter the model equations into Excel to combine all the Suitability Index Variables for a given species into a single HSI value. You can think of this HSI value as the probability that the habitat type measured is suitable for a species, but habitat suitability does not guarantee presence. Table 1. Suitability Index Variables and Habitat Suitability Index rating for five wildlife species in a red pine plot. Species V1 V2 V3 V4 HSId fisher barred owl na 0.17 pine warbler : : : : : downy woodpecker : : : : : black-capped chickadee : : : : : 2

12 Handout 5: Soil Survey **There is a glossary on page 217 if you find a term you don t understand. 1. There are maps located at the back of the book, go to the page that is the Index to Map Sheets. Try to locate your stand on this sheet, what sheet number is your map on? 2. Go to the map number, this is a larger map of your stand, locate your stand on the map, enter all of the soil numbers contained within each stand. Soil Number(s) & Name(s) Number Name Stand 1: Stand 2: Stand 3: 3. Go to the Detailed Soil Map Units, beginning on page 23 for each of the above soils and fill out the table below. After you have filled out the Landform, Land use and major management concerns turn to the tables beginning on page 228 for additional information. Fill out one sheet per soil. Soil Survey Sheet Stand: Soil #: Soil Name: Landform & Position on the Landform Land Use Major Management concerns Table 8 Woodland Management & Productivity Erosion Hazard Equipment limitations Seedling Mortality Windthrow hazard Common Trees Trees to Plant Table 9 Equipment Limitations: Preferred Operating Season(s): Table 11 Recreational Development Camp Areas Picnic Areas Playgrounds Paths & Trails Table 12 Wildlife Habitat Grasses & Legumes Wild herbaceous plants Hardwood trees Conifers Wetland plants Shallow water areas Openland wildlife Woodland wildlife Wetland wildlife 3 4. Turn to page 418, Interpretive Groups, look up your soil: What is the Primary Habitat Type?. Secondary Habitat type?

13 Handout 6: Habitat Type 1. What herbaceous plants are associated with this habitat type? (Found in the Identification section) Circle all of the species you had in your plot. 2. List the additional Habitat Characteristics. 3. Which Phase of development is your plot in? 4

14 Handout 7: STEWARDSHIP FORESTRY PLAN Name(s) and Address of Landowner(s): Plan prepared by: Forest Park School District 801 Forest Parkway Crystal Falls, Michigan Name: County: Township Name: Township: 45 North, Range 33W ; Section(s) 29 Quarter-Quarter Section: Total Plan Acreage: 40 Attached maps show the location of forest lands. Landowner Objectives for Management of the Forest Lands: (substitute own wording to briefly describe objectives) The following pages include descriptions of uniform vegetative or physical areas called "stands." A stand is a group of trees occupying a given area and sufficiently uniform in species composition, age and condition so as to be distinguishable from the forest on adjoining areas. A forest is comprised of many stands with differing species composition, soil types, topography and habitat classifications. Cover type is the predominant vegetation of the stand, such as aspen poletimber, northern hardwood sawtimber or lowland brush. 5

15 Key to Forest Cover Type Symbols: Productive Non-Productive or Non-Forest A Aspen AX Off-Site Aspen BH Bottomland Hardwoods F Farmland BW White Birch FG Grazed Pasture C Cedar G Grass CH Central Hardwoods, Locust GH Herbaceous Vegetation FS Fir-Spruce, White Spruce GLS Low Growing Shrubs HH Hemlock Hardwood I Residential or Commercial MR Red Maple IA Parking Area NH Northern Hardwood O Oak ICG Campground OX Scrub Oak K Keg PJ Jack Pine KB Muskeg Bog PR Red Pine, Scotch Pine KEV Emergent Vegetation PW White Pine KG Noncommercial Lowland Grass SB Black Spruce KH - Noncommercial Herbaceous Vegetation SC Swamp Conifer L - Lake SH Swamp Hardwood LB - Lowland Brush SW White Spruce LBA - Tag Alder T Tamarack, European Larch LBB - Bog Birch W Black Walnut LBD - Dogwood LBW - Shrub Willow LM - Minor Lake LMS - Minor Stream ROW - Right of Way SX - Noncommercial Swamp SXC - Noncommercial Cedar SXSB - Noncommercial Black Spruce Key to Size Classes (DBH Diameter in inches): SXT - Noncommercial Tamarack UB - Upland Brush 0-5 Seedlings & Saplings Z - Rock Outcrop 5-9 / 5-11 Pole-Timber (Conifers/Hardwoods) 9-15 / Small Sawtimber (Conifers/Hdwds) 15+ Large Sawtimber Key to Stocking Levels (shown by superscript number after the size class, i.e.): NH Density or Stocking Seedlings Saplings Pole timber (Cords) Small Saw timber (M. Bd. Ft. Scribner) 1 Poor Large Saw timber (M. Bd. Ft. Scribner) 2 Medium Good Very Good Excellent

16 LAND AND FOREST STEWARDSHIP PLAN Stand Number Cover Type: Stand Description Describe the species, and their diameters. Describe the advance regeneration in the stand. List age, condition and site index for the major species. Identify the habitat type, soils, topography and road access to the stand. Identify any unusual species. List what wildlife species appear to be using the stand. Identify any potential sources of nonpoint water pollution and how to correct this using Best Management Practices (BMPs). Identify recreational possibilities, need for buffer zones (no cut areas) along streams or wetlands. Identify needs for visual aesthetic buffer zones, or special leavetrees, such as old growth white pine or northern hardwoods. How should tree species diversity be improved? Technical Data LEAVE SOME WHITE SPACE ON THE PAGE! Timber Volume: XX cords per acre of species A, species B Acres: XX Site index for (species) is XX at 50 years. Management Objectives and Recommendations List the management objectives for the stand, and how these would be attained. Describe the timber harvest methods to be used, if a harvest is warranted. Specify what harvesting equipment should be used. Describe how the stand should be regenerated following a harvest. Note if roads or trails should be seeded to grasses following a harvest. Specify the year or years when a harvest should be done, and in what season the harvest should take place. Average Basal Area/Acre 120 square feet 2

17 LAND AND FOREST STEWARDSHIP PLAN Stand Number Stand Description Cover Type: Technical Data Management Objectives and Recommendations Timber Volume: Acres: Site index for (species): Average Basal Area/Acre 3

18 LAND AND FOREST STEWARDSHIP PLAN Stand Number Stand Description Cover Type: Technical Data Timber Volume: Acres: Site index for (species): Management Objectives and Recommendations Average Basal Area/Acre 4

19 LAND AND FOREST STEWARDSHIP PLAN MANAGEMENT ACTIVITY SCHEDULE Year Stand Acres Activity Date Complete ? 200???? Leave Date Complete column blank for land owner to fill out, after practice is finished. JF 11/02 5

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